[INTRO — sparse, clean guitar repeats a hypnotic phrase; deep dub bass and restrained, steady drums; distant city ambience buried in echo] [VERSE 1 — intimate, slightly raspy male vocal; relaxed, almost conversational] There was a corner store on Miller Street Old men talking in the summer heat A kid rode circles on a rusted bike And everyone knew everyone by sight A woman sang while she swept her floor A screen door slammed, someone called next door The nights were slow, the days were long Nobody needed much to belong [VERSE 2 — bass grows heavier; subtle guitar delays begin to overlap] Then came the cranes against the sky New glass towers climbing high The old cafe became a bank The riverfront was bought and ranked They cut the trees to widen roads Built shiny places no one knows The signs went up, the prices climbed And everything was doing fine [CHORUS — guitars widen; groove remains steady and hypnotic] Look what we've made, look what we've done Built a whole new world beneath the sun Higher walls and brighter lights But something disappeared into the night We built it bigger, we built it tall We made room for everything but us all Now we walk these streets like passing ghosts In the city that forgot us most [INSTRUMENTAL BREAK — repeating clean guitar motif; bass stays deep and steady; distorted guitar gradually emerges beneath the surface] [VERSE 3 — vocal more urgent; drums begin subtle variations] The people who remember move away Their old front doors are priced to stay The names they gave those streets are gone There's nothing left to hang them on The new crowd comes, the old crowd leaves Everyone's got somewhere else to be We pass each other, eyes ahead A thousand lives, a word unsaid [CHORUS — thicker guitars; rougher vocal, restrained intensity] Look what we've made, look what we've done Built a whole new world beneath the sun Higher walls and brighter lights But something disappeared into the night We built it bigger, we built it tall We made room for everything but us all Now we walk these streets like passing ghosts In the city that forgot us most [BRIDGE — drums drop out; low bass pulse and echoing guitar; vocal quietens] And somewhere underneath the stone A little street still feels like home A name scratched deep into a wall A place that hasn't changed at all But who are we when no one knows The face beneath the clothes we chose? What good's a kingdom, what good's a crown If you can't remember who you were before it all grew out? [BUILD — drums return with a heavier pulse; distorted guitars rise gradually; vocal becomes rawer] We wanted more We wanted fast We thought the future Would make us last We took the land We changed the view But somewhere in the building We lost what we knew [FINAL CHORUS — massive, slow-building post-rock climax; deep bass, powerful live drums, layered distorted guitars and expansive echoes] Look what we've made, look what we've done Chased the horizon till the old days were gone Higher walls beneath a nameless sky Still asking ourselves what money can't buy We built it bigger, we built it tall Thought we could have everything after all Now the lights burn on, but nobody knows Who we were before the city grew [OUTRO — the drums continue beneath long, distorted guitar echoes; the original clean guitar phrase returns, distant and almost buried] Somewhere, a door swings in the wind Somewhere, a child asks where we've been Somewhere, a voice calls through the rain... But the city Doesn't know its name [The instruments fade one by one; the final bass note lingers, unresolved.]
